Severed Ties
by Lecklund
Summary: Melanie and Miltiades Malachite were twins of which had fallen into an unfortunate line of work for someone their age: bodyguards. Though they were strong and agile, they were barely a match for the blonde that had sauntered into 'The Club' and knocked out the man they were hired to protect one fateful night. Many questions arise afterwards, and may threaten the bond they have.
1. Chapter 1

_They noticed her as she walked towards where they sat. Junior waved them off, Red obeying with a single nod and left, and White broadcasting her disapproval of the order with a glare in his direction and raising her nose to the ceiling as a snobby way of saying '_Fine. But I'm only doing this because I chose to_.'_

_When both Red and White returned, ready for combat as they assumed they would need to be, many of the suited men in 'The Club' were down for the count, the fiery blonde just taking out the DJ as they made their way back onto the main floor. Red, stepping ahead of her sister White, was the first to utter a word, _"Melanie, who is this girl?"

_White, dubbed as 'Melanie', smirked while walking ahead to step in front of Red. Her confident air was present as she crossed her arms, _"I don't know Miltia, but we should teach her a lesson."

_The fiery blonde's air of confidence competed with even Melanie's as a smirk crawled onto her face while reloading her gauntlet-like weapons on her wrists. The battle that ensued was short-lived however._

_The twins, fighting in synch were quite strong, enough to knock back the sturdy blonde girl, but when Melanie saw Red, named 'Miltia', tossed into one of the abstract glass platforms with a smile on her face, she knew in that moment that she couldn't win. Yet Melanie was stubborn and now angry, and she continued to go after the blonde girl until a few moments later when a misplaced kick ended up being her downfall. In pain, she stumbled away in defeat, like a guilty dog with its tail between its legs, as the climactic battle between Junior and the blonde began. Assisting her sister to her feet, they left 'The Club', beaten and humiliated._

**_Humiliation._**

The burning sensation that Melanie so despised. She sat in the lounge of their lavish downtown apartment, Miltia handing her sister some ice to relieve the pain of her head injury and then standing off to the side with her head politely tilted down, as usual. Melanie groaned exasperatedly, her glare seeming to burn holes into the floor if it could be converted into physical strength. Miltia was hesitant, but questioned quietly, "What's wrong, Melanie?"

Her reply was snappy as she rolled her eyes, "Oh, I don't know, Miltia… perhaps it's the fact that we just got our… '_derrieres'_ handed to us when we were supposed to be protecting Junior."

Miltia winced, "Is that what you're so upset about?"

She threw her hands up into the air, "Yes!"

The twin in red said nothing more, attempting to avoid the situation becoming more volatile than it already was. The twin in white however, appeared even more restless than before. Her hands were clenched into fists and her eyes conveyed an overwhelming irritation, "I still can't believe that stupid blonde bimbo got the best of us. Us! She's just one person… it shouldn't have been that hard-"

"I think we underestimated her, Melanie…" Her small voice came from the side.

Melanie turned her head to look at her with the same vicious glare, "_Underestimated_ her? It was two against one, Miltia! We had the upper hand…"

She frowned, "Well, Junior was understanding about it when he called… he's not usually like that, so perhaps this girl was the real deal, you know? At least we still have our jobs…"

Melanie saw her sister visibly flinch after she said this, probably afraid of being scorned again. There was nothing to fear however, as Melanie merely sighed irritably and her posture became far less tense than it was a moment earlier, "I guess you're right about that, anyway. For how long though?"

Miltia glanced over at Melanie through her blunt-cut bangs as she removed the feather hair-piece she wore. Melanie sat with her head turned away, the knuckles on her one hand starting to turn white from holding the small bag of ice to her head. No words were spoken for quite some time in the still tense silence. It bothered Miltia, since she was so used to her sister's talkative ways. Something about the silence that passed between them seemed off to her, but she didn't dare inquire about it. She knew better than to pry into business that didn't concern her.

After several more minutes had passed, Melanie's expression softened as she finally met her sister's glance, "We should probably be heading to bed. It's been a _long_ day, and I need to lay down… I'm still rather dizzy from that kick to the head I took earlier."

"That, and Junior will probably be contacting us again tomorrow…"

Melanie rolled her eyes to the best of her abilities, "Oh, wonderful. He just better not call us early tomorrow like he did last week. I'll probably murder the man if I'm still feeling this way if he does."

Miltia let out a rare, small smile for her sister, "I can see that happening, for whatever reason." She paused and glanced back at her sister, who seemed to be about to doze off on the couch she was on with her eyes closed. Miltia's smile only grew as she whispered the last thing her sister heard, "Goodnight, Melanie."

* * *

**A/N:** So this is a bit different than what I normally post, I realize that ^^;  
This is more of a personal project, I suppose~ It's hard to explain, but something about the Malachite twins in the 'Yellow' trailer just made me instantly want to know more about them... so I guess this is my own interpretation/guess as to what may have happened.  
hgskjfres  
I'm sorry if they're kind of OOC... it's just how I imagine them acting with some help from the RWBY wiki .-.


	2. Chapter 2

An obnoxious ringtone was what ultimately jarred Melanie awake from her rather shallow sleep. She groaned painfully, immediately placing a hand on her still aching head and standing up on sore feet from sleeping in her platform heels. She reached for the phone lying on the coffee table and squinted at the caller ID: Junior. "Ugh… called that one out." She pressed talk and held it to her ear, "What do you want, Junior? I'm getting sick of these," She looked over at the abstract clock on the wall, "7-in-the-morning calls from you every single day."

A familiar chuckle, though not from Junior, greeted her tired ears, "My, my… Junior told me one of you Malachite Twins were awfully feisty. No idea I'd get to speak to her first."

Melanie rolled her eyes at the voice, "Oh, ha-ha. What do you want, Torchwick? And why in the world are you calling me from Junior's phone?"

"That's not important, little missy. I just wanted to arrange a get-together with Junior, you and your sister- oh what was her name again? Something that was like Greek, I do believe…"

"Her name's Miltiades -"

"Miltia! That's right, the one in the red dress. Oh, how could I forget her?" The insulting tone in his voice irritated her, but she stayed quiet, "Anyway, I expect to see you and Red here very soon. You wouldn't want to get on Junior's bad side after your little… 'incident', would you?"

"How did you find out about-"

"Well, I really must be going. I'll be waiting patiently for you to arrive!"

"But where-" Before she could finish her question, the call was dropped. She gritted her teeth as she slammed the phone down on the table. A few moments later, a bright and awake Miltia walked out of her room to be greeted by an irritated sister.

"Melanie-"

She quickly raised a hand up to silence her, "Don't even say a word, Miltia. Just let me get ready. We're going to 'The Club' in a few."

* * *

They walked up the curb in front of 'The Club' where there was now a sectioned-off area of the pavement where the glass from the shattered window still sat. Some members of the Vale Police Department were there presumably investigating what happened the previous night. Melanie giving them a sideways glance, the twins made their way around the scene to make their way into the club, where they presumed Roman and Junior would be. But would Junior of all people really be there? He was apparently tossed through a window…

"He sounded fairly good on the phone, so he might actually be here as well."

Apparently Miltia was thinking the very same thing, but was, for once, the first of the two to muse the thought out loud. Melanie glanced around the interior as the twins made their way for the stairs that led to an upstairs lounge. It was odd to see the downtown club so empty, since the place was usually fairly crowded. Then again, it would've been closed a few hours ago even without the 'incident' occurring. Junior couldn't be bothered to supervise the place 24/7 if it were open all hours of the day.

The twins were greeted to the sight of both Roman, who now stood up as he saw them entering, and Junior, who was sitting on the chair opposite of Roman with bandages on the left side of his face. Melanie could only imagine what played out the night before when the mysterious blonde went on her little 'rampage' through his club. Roman seemed almost joyous as he approached the twins, cigar in hand as always, "Ah, there's the pair of girls we were waiting for! So glad you decided to turn up."

Melanie raised a brow, "From what you told me earlier, you weren't giving us much of a choice either way."

His lips twisted into his typical smirk, "Of course I did."

Miltia nodded towards him in greeting, and she was in turn greeted with a similar response while adding, "Well hello, Red! I'll just assume you're doing better than your sister, since it's unlikely you'll tell me that yourself."

Melanie glared at him when she saw Miltia look away in shame, but turned her attention towards Junior instead, "What happened to you last night anyway? Besides the obvious, of course."

Junior smiled in a sarcastic manner, "What, besides being thrown through a window? Not much else to it, really."

"Doesn't really surprise me, knowing you."

Roman abruptly clapped his hands together before anyone could say another word, "All right, now that everyone's reacquainted themselves, let's talk business."

He took a step back and looked around the room as the twins took their seats; Melanie taking the lounge-style chair just to the side of Junior and Roman, and Miltia seating herself with Roman. She almost hesitated, since she remembered how he reeked of cigar smoke and expensive cologne, but her timid personality came out on top.

The red-haired male, meanwhile, took a drag off his cigar before finally taking his seat next to Miltia, instantly getting comfortable and propping his feet up on the coffee table between the three locations.

"All right, before we get too caught up with why we're meeting here, allow me to be the one to say," He nodded in Junior's direction, "that you are an idiot for attracting the attention you did last night to yourself."

Junior threw up his arms as he was presumably flustered with Roman's accusing tone, "What was I supposed to do? She was going to kick my ass either way, from the way she was acting!"

Roman rolled his eyes, "Oh yes. I know all the details about your encounter with... 'blondy', in the words of some of your men. Which reminds me that technically, they're under my command at the moment... or did you forget about-"

Junior cut him off with a wave of his hand, "Yeah, yeah. The deal, I know. I don't forget about that kind of crap, you know that."

He raised his hands in mock defense, "I was just making certain it was clear. No need to ruffle your feathers about it." He leaned forward in his seat, "Now, regarding the topic of the deal-"

"What is it now? The price? I'll lose money if I-"

Roman silenced him with a raised finger, "Ah-ah. It's got nothing to do with money... for the most part." He frowned at the cigar now in his hand, as it had apparently gone out while he was talking. Quickly relighting it with a grumble to himself, he continued, "I just feel like we should make the deal a bit more... fair."

"It's fair enough as-is. You got the guys you need for the operation, I have my money. What reason is there to change it?"

Roman smirked and leaned back in his seat next to the silent twin, "Well, I think you owe us something for blowing your cover-"

Junior tensed up as his tone turned dangerous, "My cover wasn't blown, Roman."

He frowned and his voice had a drawl to it, "Not yet, anyway. You did however endanger it, and that therefore endangered us-"

Junior wasn't backing down, "She wasn't even asking me about anything like that! She was asking about this one woman I've never even seen, and-"

"That's not important right now, Junior. You can go cry to your mother about it later, but let's get back on-topic, shall we?"

He grumbled but complied, "Yeah, sure."

Roman's eyes narrowed, "I can't change the rules, Junior, you know that. I didn't make them in the first place." He laced his fingers together and sighed, "I'm afraid, by orders of my boss, the lovely Malachite twins will be taken off your hands as payment for your 'failure', as they worded it."

Melanie finally spoke up, obviously outraged by the conclusion, "What!? Why us?"

"You're the only things of value that Junior possess that's of value and interest to the boss. Besides, I've heard rumor that they have big plans for the both of you."

Junior's brow furrowed, "From what you're implying, this has been planned for a while, has it?"

Roman gave a nonchalant shrug, "The boss keeps me in the dark when it concerns this stuff."

Melanie crossed her arms as she abruptly stood up, "I don't see why we have to be tossed around without our consent. Miltia and I should be able to decide what to do to ourselves, not you boss. We aren't objects."

Roman smirked, "Says the girl who constantly wears the party dress and platform heels."

Melanie clenched her fists at his discourteous remark, and looked to her sister for help. Miltia glanced up at her as she began nervously, "Well..." Her gaze flickered over towards an unamused Roman, "Can't you ask your boss about it? Surely there's some way around it..."

Roman sat up abruptly in his seat, "The red twin speaks! Unfortunately, you sound exactly like your sister. On the bright side however, I believe you're far more tolerable than she is, which is always a plus in my books." After receiving a scathing glare from Melanie, he got back on topic, "Right, well- I'd have to ask, of course. The problem with that is that they appear to have rather specific plans for you two, which we can assume will almost guarantee the answer will be a no."

Melanie's expression became more distressed, "Surely there's something you can do, Roman."  
He shrugged, "My hands are tied, snowflake. Nothing I can do about that."

Junior didn't seem able to come up with a better bargain, and the Malachite twins fell silent out of frustration. There was an uneasy silence between the four of them until Roman glanced around and let out a heavy sigh, "Tell you what," He addressed the twins, "Go home and just do whatever you do. I'll try to get a hold of the boss and see what they say about that. I'll call you when I find out if it's a 'yay' or 'nay', capische?"

Melanie contemplated the idea before shrugging nonchalantly, "Sounds like a plan to me."

Miltia and Junior both nodded in agreement, and with a final confirming gesture from Roman, the four stood and proceeded to make their way out and head their separate ways for the time being.

* * *

Miltia was stopped by Junior on her way out of the entrance to 'The Club' as she followed a few strides behind her sister. Melanie hadn't noticed her sister had stopped following her, and continued on her way. Junior had tapped Miltia on the shoulder, "Hey, Miltiades."

She timidly turned and glanced up at him, "Yes?"

"I just wanted to ask if one of you could let me know when Roman finds out what's happenin' to you two."

She furrowed her brow in confusion, "But wouldn't Roman contact you first about something like that?"

He made a face, "Eh, knowing Roman, he'll probably tell me last, as usual."

After a moment of silence between the two, Miltia nodded, "I'll tell Melanie about it when we get back."

He sighed with what seemed like relief, "Thanks, I appreciate it."

* * *

**A/N:** _*Before anyone scolds me for using 'out-of-universe-language' with the insertion of the 'a'-word, think about it for a minute. These guys are part of what we can assume is some form of criminal underground, so they'll obviously be a bit less... 'refined' or 'polite' with the language. I don't plan on throwing in a curse every five seconds, of course, but you might catch the odd one, depending on the setting.*_

On another note, to avoid confusion [I was confused myself for quite sometime], this part is taking place in between the events in the 'Yellow' trailer and the first official episode of RWBY, 'Ruby Rose', where Ruby encounters Roman for what is presumed to be the first time. That's why Roman calls Miltiades 'Red', because he hadn't used the nickname for Ruby yet [plus, Miltia was an early concept for Ruby anyway, so I thought it'd be a nice feature to add ;u;]

Anyways, I hope this part's okay~! I wrote most of this on the bus a while ago, but I did minor edits/cuts while typing this [I can't express in words how much I hate typing up a copy from paper]...

I apologize if anyone is OOC in this [mainly concerning Roman]... I read up about their personalities on the RWBY Wiki, but like I said, most of this was written on the bus, and I had to go with memory on this one ;u;


End file.
